Preparations are fully underway across the five boroughs as the city braces for the first major snowstorm of the season.

About six to nine inches of snow are expected to fall in the city by Sunday morning. The heaviest downfall is expected late this afternoon through 5 a.m. Sunday.

As usual, the Department of Sanitation says it is ready for whatever precipitation the city sees.

"You know we have a good fleet, as you can see around here the salt spreaders are all up and prepared and ready to go out," said DOS Commissioner John Doherty. "Our crews are being trained all through the fall season and we feel we're in good shape and ready to go out in this snow storm."

"We do have adequate supplies of rock salt on hand. The focus of course, will be on the highways and the bus routes and then the secondary and tertiary roads," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

On Friday, New Yorkers headed to Home Depot, Lowes and other hardware stores to stock up on shovels and salt.

"We got two bags for now, we'll see," said one Queens resident.

"This year I'm going to buy the snow blower, because I'm getting older," said another.

"A lot of customers coming in asking for rock salt, snow blowers, shovels; you name it, they're asking for it," said Home Depot store manager Michael Monteverdi. "With the customers, they hate the snow, they hate the ice. They come in and buy the rock salt. They want to make sure their driveways are clean, sidewalks are nice and clear."

The Port Authority also says it has thousands of tons of salt and sand on hand to handle conditions at its airports, tunnels, bridges and in the PATH system. The agency is also scheduling extra personnel at all of its facilities.

They also have more than 200 piece of heavy snow equipment, including units that can plow, brush and blow snow at 35 mph.

The authority will also be using melters than can liquify up to 500 tons of snow each hour.

Airports are also equipped with thousands of gallons of liquid anti-icer chemicals that prevent snow and ice from bonding to runways and taxiways.

Bad weather may close area airports during Saturday evening and night.

As for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, it is also readying its snow equipment to keep 220 miles of outdoor tracks and the third rail clear of snow and ice.

The MTA says it is canceling all of its planned service changes for this weekend due to the forecasted cold and inclement weather conditions. Straphangers should allow for additional travel time.

New York City Transit says it is deploying machines and employees to keep mass transit operating efficiently, including crews to clear snow from staircases at all 468 subway stations.

Salt-spreading trucks are also assigned to each bus depot.